All Chapters of The Bloodline They Erased: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

By sunrise, every wolf in the Five Clans would be hunting her.At 2:14 a.m., Nyra Voss was just trying to do her job.“Man down at the old chapel on the ridge,” dispatch crackled through her radio. “Caller hung up. No name.”“Copy.”Nyra grabbed her medical bag and checked the lantern in her other hand. The storm had knocked out power across Saint Veil, her partner was dealing with a wreck on Route 28, and the ambulance couldn’t get through the mud covering the last stretch of road. That left her alone, climbing a hill in the middle of a storm to help somebody who might already be dead.Eleven months as an EMT, and apparently that was enough experience for the universe to start playing games with her.Rain soaked through her uniform before she reached the chapel. The building had been abandoned for years, its stone walls covered in moss and its windows broken out. Wind pushed through the trees, making the branches scrape against the roof.Nyra stepped inside and raised her lantern.Th

The crypt had a back door. Of course it did.Nyra found it by following the cold air moving through the passage. The tunnel ran north from the room covered in carvings, narrow enough that she had to crouch and turn her shoulders to squeeze through. Roots hung from the ceiling, brushing against her hair and neck. Twice, her hand landed in something wet. She decided she didn’t need to know what it was.She kept her eyes off the walls.Every time her phone light caught one of those circles with thirteen jagged lines, the mark on her palm started throbbing. She didn’t know what the symbols meant, but she was beginning to hate them.After what felt like forever, the tunnel sloped upward. Nyra pushed through a rusted iron grate tangled in ivy and stumbled into the rain.She recognized the place immediately. She was behind the Lutheran cemetery, at the base of the old stone walls. Kids from Saint Veil High came here to drink, sneak around, and tell stories about a Dutch soldier who supposedl

The black wolf watched them for a full minute.Nyra counted the seconds without thinking about it. Counting was a habit she couldn’t switch off. On emergency calls, she counted compressions, breaths, and the seconds between a patient’s last heartbeat and the moment help arrived.Fifty-eight. Fifty-nine. Sixty.The wolf finally stood, turned away from them, and disappeared over the far side of the wall.Jade let out a breath. “Okay. So that one’s the boss.”“How do you know?”“Because everybody else stopped moving when he showed up.” Jade glanced at the broken gate. “I manage a bar on karaoke night, Nyra. I know what it looks like when the drunkest guy in the room tells everybody to sit down.”Nyra looked back toward Ridge Road. The pack had gone quiet. They weren’t frightened of the wall. They were waiting.The black wolf had called them off.Which meant he hadn’t given up on her. He’d simply decided to wait.“Great,” Nyra muttered. “Fantastic. Love that for me.”She tried the ignitio

She didn’t run.Running was what it wanted. She knew that the way she knew a patient was about to crash, a feeling in the back of her neck that had nothing to do with logic.So she walked.Slowly. Downhill. Following the slope of the land, because water always went downhill, and Silas had said water.The footsteps followed. Sometimes on her left. Sometimes behind. Once, close enough that she heard it breathe, a long, deep huff that fogged in the cold air somewhere out of sight.She kept walking.The rain thinned to drizzle, then to mist. The black between the trees turned charcoal, then gray. Dawn was coming. She could feel it in the birds, the first cautious chirps from the branches.Sunrise.That’s how long you’ve got, sweetheart.Then she heard it. Under the drip of the trees. A rushing, chattering sound.Water.She broke into a run.The pines opened onto a rocky creek, wide and fast, swollen by the storm. White water hissed over boulders. Nyra splashed in up to her knees and the c

Nyra woke up in a bed that cost more than her car.Heavy quilts. Sheets so soft they felt like water. Afternoon light through tall windows.Her second thought was: Where are my pants?She sat up too fast. The room spun. Her head throbbed, her joints ached, and her mouth tasted like she’d been gargling pennies.She was wearing a T-shirt that said BLACKMERE LAKE REGATTA 2019 and a pair of flannel pajama pants three sizes too big.“Relax,” said a voice. “I changed you. Not him. He’d rather die. He went bright red just carrying you upstairs.”A girl sat cross-legged in the armchair by the window, holding a tray. Nineteen, maybe. Long dark braid, freckles, enormous gray eyes. Hoodie sleeves pulled over her hands.Those eyes. Nyra had seen them this morning in a creek.“You’re related to him.”“Tamsin. Little sister. Sorry in advance for everything about him.” The girl hopped up and set the tray on the bed. Soup. Bread. A tall glass of water and a bottle of Gatorade. “Mom says eat. Mom says